But after some thought, I believe the problem lies with benchmarking 2 different GPUs against each other. For example, running an nVidia FX5900 up against and ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

I don't see any problem with comparing one nVidia based card to another, so I have decided to include both 3DMark 2001 SE and 3DMark '03 results in this review

We will be comparing the Inno3D Tornado FX 5200 against the Abit Siluro Ti4200 OTES and Abit Siluro Ti4400.

3DMark 2001 SE:

In the 3DMark 2001benchmark, the FX5200 lags behind the Ti4200 and Ti4400 by quite a margin - roughly 40%. I want to note that all three cards being tested have 128MB of ram, so they are all equal in that area. The differences in score are due to GPU performance and ram speed.

3DMark '03:

In the 3DMark '03benchmark, the FX5200 doesn't take nearly the beating in took in the 3DMark 2001 benchmark. Here, we see the FX 5200 lagging by only a 20% margin, roughly.

Code Creatures:

The Codecreatures benchmark is written wirh Microsoft´s DirectX 8.1 API and incorporates the use of vertex and pixel shaders popular on next-generation 3D graphics accelerators. The benchmark plays a photo-relistic nature scene and calculates the performance of the graphics adapter by measuring the number of frames per second that it can display at 1023x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 resolutions. The score is a geometric mean of those three resolutions called the Codecreatures number.

In the Codecreatures benchmark, the FX5200 only shows about 1/2 the performance of the Ti4200 across the board.

GL Excess:

GLExcess is a relatively new 3D benchmarking tool based on, you guessed it, OpenGL. I really like this benchmark, and will definitely use it more in the future.

The Tornado FX5200 fares quite a bit better in this benchmark, though still behind the other two cards.

Conclusion:

Although the Inno3D Tornado FX5200 lacks the horsepower of the Ti4200 and Ti4400 cards we compared it to, you have to take a few things into consideration. First, the FX5200 is DirectX 9 capable, and the others aren't. Secondly, the Inno3D Tornado FX5200 costs only 68 bucks! Compare this to $111 for the Ti4200 OTES, and approx $150 for the Ti4400 (The Siluro Ti4400 is not listed on Pricewatch any longer). This, combined with the nice software bundle, we cannot say that it is a bad deal at all. Granted, if you are a the kind of person who needs the fastest graphics card on the planet, this card is not for you. However, if you are looking for a DX9 capable card at a great price, then the Inno3D Tornado FX5200 may be exactly what you are looking for!

PCExtreme gives the Inno3D Tornado FX5200 4 X's!

We also award the Tornado FX5200 our Extreme Value award for being a solid card, at an extremely low price.

For more info, see Inno3Ds website.